Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/555

 A P. P E N D. 1 X, 1 Rhutvpis Colonia 3 10 Regvlbio 10 Antoninus. keeping it open. .And from this defcription of its antient (late, compared with the ftate- ©f the coaft about it, the haven of Dover appears fufficiently to have been, what the generality of our hiftdrians have fuppofed it to have been, that very point of land which Caefar firft made in his firft expedition into Britain.' His account of that land is a lively defcription of this harbour. Nearing the land aboqt ten in the morning, lbi in omnibus collibus expbfltas hoftium copias armatas coftTpexit; cujus loci hsec erat natura, adeo- montibus anguftis mare cominebatur uti ex locis fuperibribus in littus telum adjici poffet. And his account of his motions afterwards quadrates ejcaftly^with the nature of _ the coaft. Waiting for the reft of his fleet, he came to anchor about the very point a£ furedly where the town of Dover now ftands, & ventum Ac seftum uno tempore naftus fecundum,- 1 — circitcr Millia Pafluum iil ab eo loco progreflus, aperto ac' piano littore> ' naves conftituit. He landed about Walmer Caftle, where the high cliffs terminare, and whither the diftance of eight miles from Dover exadly carries us. Thefe are fuch coin- cidences as decifively prove. the point. And the expreffions in Dio which have Been unfairly wrefted by Halley into a conformity with Caefar's account, and as unfairly ap- plied by Batteley in dire£t oppoiition to it {p. 45^ Antkj. Rhutup.), ought certainly* to be of no consideration on the point, becaufe they are qppofed by Caefar's. Cacfar/s own account of what he (aw and did muft certainly^ in all points where the honour of Caefar was not peculiarly intcrefted, be infinitely fuperior in authority to the accounts of others not prefent at the fcenes, not cotemporary with the fads, and writing two or three* centuries after him. The road from Dover to Canterbury, fermerfy fourteen. . Roman miles or thirteen Englifh only (fee Antoninus Iter 3.), is now extended to fixteen English, as the head of the harbour and the fite of the town of Dover were three miles nearer to Canterbury than they are at prefent. And the prefent road runs for one mile and a half along the bottom of the antient harbour. The name of this town therefore, the etymon of whicK has been fufpended in uncertainty betwixt Duvr Water and Dufyrrba. . Rocks (Lambard, Camden, and Somner), is certainly derived from the former, becaule it was originally placed remote from its rocky cliffs, and becaufe its name Dubris or. Dubrae is the appellation equally of the river and of the town. which 'now lies under Richborough Caftle was formerly the great harbour of Rhutupne, Portus — claffi Romanorum qiue Qceano Septentrionali flommahatur recipiend?c faclus idoneus (Richard p. 17). I he road from Margate now runs di redly acrofs the mouth of the harbour, and the traveller now rides where the Roman navy anchored. At a point •f this harbour and on the margin of a cliff were railed the caftle and towaof Rhiuupx. The fite of the town, though it was pne of the few Roman colonies- in Britain, has been diluted among the antiquarians, Camden places it near the caftle and on the defcent of the hill (p. *40and 241, edit, 1607). And Somner transfers it to Sandwich (p. 6. Roman .Porttin Kent)* But the reafons. produced by. Camden are.decifive. In. his time,
 * Batteley has fully fhewn, and tradition coincides with the proofs, that the large plain
 * Rich^